A piece of history came crashing down onto a downtown El Paso sidewalk Thursday morning, injuring one person when eaves fell from the long-vacant building at the historic Acme Saloon site. Paramedics responded just before noon to the building at 227 East San Antonio Avenue, at the corner of San Antonio Avenue and North Mesa Street, where the person was treated and taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
According to the El Paso Times, paramedics arrived at 11:55 a.m. Thursday after pieces of the building's eaves fell onto the area below. City spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta moved quickly to clarify the scope of the damage, telling the paper, “Early reports referenced a building collapse, that is not the case.” Cruz-Acosta confirmed it was a portion of the eaves, not the structure itself, that came down.
Photographs taken at the scene Thursday show the building's balcony with exposed brick and supports, while barricades and city vehicles lined the block outside. The El Paso Police Department closed the sidewalk next to the building as a precaution, and the area remained blocked off beside the property while officials sorted out next steps.
City Finds No Permits for Work at the Site
City officials said the incident remains under investigation. Planning, inspections and code enforcement staff were sent to the property to determine what would be needed to secure the site and address safety concerns, the report notes. Crucially, the Planning and Inspections department found no active permits for work at the building or any permitted activity happening there at all.
That detail raises questions about how the aging structure has been maintained, though the circumstances behind its vacancy have not been detailed. The building has sat empty in the heart of downtown, a stretch of San Antonio Avenue that still carries the weight of one of the city's most notorious historical episodes.
A Site Tied to One of the Old West's Most Famous Shootings
The address is known as the former home of the Lerner Store and the Acme Saloon, a name etched into Texas lore. On Aug. 19, 1895, gunslinger John Wesley Hardin was shot and killed by Constable John Selman at the Acme Saloon, per the same El Paso Times account. The original saloon building, constructed of wood and adobe, was removed in 1910 to make way for new construction at the corner.
The saloon's old-west notoriety still circulates well beyond newsprint. A 1892 photograph of the Acme Saloon shared on X by Traces of Texas
recounts how “notorious gunslinger John Wesley Hardin would be shot and killed by Constable John Selman” there three years after the image was taken.
Part of a Larger Downtown Problem
Thursday's incident lands amid a broader, long-documented struggle with vacant buildings in downtown El Paso. A city survey found more than one hundred abandoned buildings in the downtown area alone in various states of disrepair, according to Construction Reporter. City officials had previously floated a plan to develop and implement an action plan addressing buildings that are vacant, substandard, or in violation of city ordinances.
El Paso's own municipal code already lays out rules for how such properties are supposed to be handled. A city ordinance on file with the El Paso Municipal Clerk's office addresses the maintenance, removal and demolition of vacant buildings or structures and their attached appurtenances, underscoring that the legal framework for dealing with deteriorating downtown properties has existed for years even as the buildings themselves continue to age.
For now, the sidewalk outside the Acme Saloon site remains closed as the investigation continues and city staff work out how to secure the property. No further details on the injured person's condition or the building's ownership have been released.
